20,000 New Neighbours. The Same Recreation Centre.

Four times a year, parents set alarms for the moment recreation registration opens. They sit at the kitchen table with a laptop, a phone, and a little bit of hope. They refresh the page. They watch spots disappear in real time.

Within minutes, the programs are gone.

Some parents are still waiting for the website to load. Others are already explaining to their child why they won't be playing this season.

Soccer. Swimming. Taekwondo. Tennis. Badminton. Hockey. Cricket.

Different sports. Same story.

This isn't a story about a website.

It's a story about a community that grew faster than its plan.

Walk through any neighbourhood in Stittsville and you'll see the consequences.

Swim programs with waitlists longer than the classes themselves.

Hockey teams practicing late at night because there are no ice times left.

Martial arts clubs renting church basements and community halls because there isn't enough dedicated space.

Tennis and pickleball courts booked before most people have had breakfast.

Families driving across the city just so their kids can participate in a program that should be available close to home.

Parents who have stopped trying altogether because they've lost the registration race too many times.

And despite being one of Ottawa's fastest-growing communities, Ward 6 still doesn't have a dedicated outdoor fitness park or calisthenics facility where residents can exercise for free.

Different neighbourhoods. Different seasons. Same problem.

The numbers tell the story.

At the 2016 Census, Stittsville Ward had 32,494 residents.

By 2024, it had grown to more than 52,000.

Since 2016, Stittsville has added more than 20,000 residents — a population increase of nearly 65%, making it one of Ottawa's fastest-growing communities.

Yet our primary recreation hub, CARDELREC on Shea Road, opened in 2000. Its last major expansion was completed in 2008.

More than fifteen years have passed since the last significant investment in recreation infrastructure serving our community.

Since then, Stittsville has welcomed more than 20,000 new neighbours.

We have not built a single new major municipal recreation centre.

Not one.

One major recreation complex. One pool. Two ice pads.

Serving a community that has grown far beyond what those facilities were designed to support.

That didn't happen by accident.

It happened because City Hall treated growth as a housing issue instead of a community issue.

Homes were approved. Communities were postponed.

The result is what we're living with today.

And perhaps nothing illustrates this better than our outdoor rinks.

The vast majority of Stittsville's outdoor rinks depend on community volunteers for flooding, maintenance, and operation.

I am grateful for those volunteers.

They are the reason countless children learn to skate, play hockey, and build memories every winter.

But relying on volunteers alone should not be a long-term strategy.

It should be a warning sign.

A pool is not a luxury.

A rink is not a luxury.

A court is not a luxury.

A field is not a luxury.

These are the places where communities are built.

They're where newcomers make friends. Where children gain confidence. Where seniors stay active. Where neighbours become teammates. Where people from different backgrounds discover they have more in common than they realized.

You can build thousands of houses and still fail to build a community.

Community happens in the spaces between work and home.

The rink. The pool. The trail. The field. The court. The gym.

The places where people gather.

When those spaces disappear, people don't always complain.

They simply stop participating.

And eventually, they stop feeling connected.

Stittsville hasn't outgrown its potential.

It has outgrown the plan.

Our population grew. Our families grew. Our ambitions grew.

But the infrastructure that supports community life did not.

The next decade cannot look like the last one.

As your next City Councillor, I will push for recreation infrastructure to keep pace with growth, not lag a decade behind it. That means planning ahead, securing funding, and making sure new development contributes to the facilities and amenities that families actually use.

Because building homes is only half the job.

Building community is the other half.

And it's time City Hall started doing both.

I'm Sheetal Narwal. Candidate for Ward 6 City Councillor.

October 26. Show up. Vote for a Stittsville that grows together.